Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with ethanol production from animal and vegetable waste.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,504 issued to Pavilon (1990) describes the production of ethanol and, more particularly, to conversion of biomass for producing ethanol. patent '504 is particularly applicable to conversion of wood and agricultural wastes to produce ethanol. The biomass slurry is hydrolyzed in a fuel fired hydrolysis heater, and the solids are separated from the hydrolyzed effluent. The effluent is fermented and subsequently distilled at substantially atmospheric pressure to produce ethyl alcohol vapor. The vapor is fed to a vacuum distillation tower for producing anhydrous ethyl alcohol.
United States Patent Application No. 20080213849 Stewart et al., (2008) discloses a method for producing ethanol from solid citrus waste by reducing the concentration of limonene in citrus waste to allow fermentation. The solid citrus waste is partially hydrolyzed and pasteurized by heating using a jet cooker and then injected into a flash tank to remove limonene. The heated citrus waste is then cooled, hydrolyzed with enzymes and fermented to ethanol. The remaining solids and liquids may be processed further to yield other byproducts. More particularly, the solids may be dried and pressed for use in cattle feed and the liquids may be further fermented or processed to yield additional ethanol, acetate, galacturonic acid monomers and polymers, five carbon sugars and other products.